Chapter 1263: Slaughter Prophecy, Continuation of the Arcane Empire

Generally speaking, prompt-type information usually has a source of reference; that is to say, if one has not obtained the information beforehand, one cannot produce any prompts.

If one does, then it can be called a "prophecy."

Continuing his perception, besides perceiving what needed to be done next in the Oracle, Xia Duo further perceived more content, involving the overall substance of the prophecy.

Unlike the interpretation by Kelifu—"When the flowers are in full bloom, deep within the Dream Ruins, the deep crimson hero takes away the authority of death"—the prophecy Xia Duo interpreted was—

"Amidst the entwined time, deep within the brilliant nebula, the envoy of slaughter holds the authority over life and death."

Xia Duo told Kelifu the prophecy he had interpreted, but Kelifu did not feel surprised, instead saying: "The results of an Oracle interpreted by different people are all different; there is no need to mind these details."

Xia Duo nodded. Indeed, interpreting an Oracle is actually the same as interpreting a Doctrine; the same Doctrine (Oracle, Holy Power) eventually derives different schools of thought.

Wanting to truly unify thought and unify content, even if the Lord of Radiance were to explain it in person, it might not necessarily be effective.

Setting aside the portion of people who are actually just believing in themselves, even true believers will have their own unique insights regarding the concepts of the Doctrine, which even transcends the faith in the Lord of Radiance itself.

To use a popular saying from Earth to describe it, that is: "I love my teacher, but I love the truth even more!"

Xia Duo did not dwell on this issue for too long; anyway, he had already received a prompt on what to do next, and this was already enough.

……

Following the intuition in his heart, Xia Duo traveled among the stars and soon arrived at a point of light so dim that it looked as if it were about to extinguish at any moment.

"Lord Kelifu, it is here!"

Kelifu and Suo En also followed Xia Duo here, and at the same time, they also noticed this dim point of light, which meant that this Projection Plane could disappear at any moment.

Seeing this scene, a trace of impatience immediately appeared in Kelifu's eyes, but he still suppressed his heart and reminded Xia Duo: "Next, I will have to trouble Lord Xia Duo."

Xia Duo knew that this trip had to be taken, but just as he was about to touch the point of light, he suddenly stopped and asked instead:

"Lord Kelifu, Lord Suo En, will you also enter this Projection Plane?"

"I will not," Suo En replied very simply and coldly.

"I cannot; this Projection Plane can no longer withstand two people descending at the same time," Kelifu quickly answered Xia Duo's question and could not help but urge: "Lord Xia Duo, you must hurry!"

"Understood."

Xia Duo responded, then poked his finger toward the special point of light guided by the prophetic Oracle.

"Boom—"

A mental shock far more intense than when projecting via the Tower of Time's Plane Exploration Array, countless memories flooded into his mind all at once, and even various sensory information appeared along with them.

For a moment, Xia Duo felt as if he had become another person, a High Mage named "Maikade," an Empire Remnant of the Arcane Empire, and an elite judge of the resistance organization 【Vengeance Tribunal】.

"Damn it! Kelifu didn't say that entering a Projection Plane from the Astral Plane would mean receiving all memories at once!"

Fortunately, Xia Duo was long since no stranger to such a state and had long had a relatively complete coping mechanism. He quickly observed the surrounding environment; it was a place similar to a hospital ward.

At the same time, a segment of memory suddenly surged into his mind; it was an event that had recently happened to "Maikade" before Xia Duo descended—

The operation encountered an ambush, he barely escaped back to a temporary shelter, and then passed out.

Now that Xia Duo had arrived, he guessed blindly that there might be a traitor around him; otherwise, how could he have happened to encounter an ambush?

But at this moment, for him, a more urgent problem than finding the traitor was resolving the "Maikade" memories that had suddenly surged out.

……

Enduring the dual discomfort of body and spirit, Xia Duo cast an 8th Circle Protective Spell 【Protection from Energy】 on himself, and added a 【Force Barrier】 to the hospital bed he was currently lying on.

These two spells were common spells he was very familiar with and proficient in. The 9th Circle was indeed more powerful, but in this state of poor mental condition, forcibly casting spells he was not yet proficient in—if he made a mistake and killed himself, that would be too ridiculous.

However, in "Maikade's" memories, the companions who retreated to this temporary shelter with him had at most only touched the Fifth Layer of the Weave; two 8th Circle spells were still relatively safe.

Those people would never imagine that in just a short while, "Maikade" had changed from an ordinary High Mage into a Senior Arcanist.

"There shouldn't be any problems, right!"

But regardless, after barely casting two 8th Circle spells, he had no energy left to do anything else. Moreover, if the memory problem was not resolved, he worried it would affect the stability of his own Personality.

In a state of Meditation, Xia Duo began to regulate his Subconscious and Conscious Mind while tracing his memories. He traced back directly to one month ago (his own time), the state of his Personality backed up during his daily Meditation Training before departing from the Main Plane.

Then he traced backward from that time node; the period before entering the Projection Plane had been normal.

It was not until he entered 【Projection Plane: Arcane Empire】 and became "Maikade" that, unlike normal projections via the Mage Tower's Plane Exploration Array, this projection had a large amount of memory continuously flooding in.

And the influence of external memories on one's own Personality lay in the fact that it would change the Subconscious bit by bit.

In layman's terms, some information was automatically marked as "trusted files" by his Subconscious. As these "trusted files" accumulated more and more, they automatically combined into an existence similar to a "virus"—that is, thinking and behavioral patterns that were different from his normal Personality and caused interference to his normal Personality.

Although this would not make Xia Duo suddenly become "Maikade," under the pollution of "Maikade's" memories, he was no longer the self he recognized himself to be.

Taking advantage of the fact that his self-cognition was still "Xia Duo," Xia Duo had to resolve this problem as soon as possible.

……

Because he had the experience of cleaning up Drow memory pollution in 【Projection Plane: Underdark】, Xia Duo was actually not particularly worried about this current situation.

After all, "Maikade" was also a human; compared to the memories of a Drow spanning hundreds of years, it was truly a small matter.

What he had to do now was to temporarily ignore the automatic judgments made by his Subconscious in the past and use his past "backup Personality" to actively make judgments again.

All of this was very time-consuming and laborious, almost no less than re-experiencing everything after entering the Projection Plane, and it was the kind that was detailed down to every last thing, including all information from all perceptual angles, including normal five senses, the Magic Net, and even intuition.

A full month!

Even though the time perceived by consciousness was much faster than real time, it still required a considerable amount of time to complete this project, which could be called massive.